Narcoleptics and Insomniacs
by words end here
Summary: Dan, Blair. AU, a what if scenario had they both ended up going to Yale. "Have you ever thought about you and me?" She questioned, wanting, needing to know. "I think I just saw hell freeze over." He replied. Oneshot. Implied CB, NB, DS and DV.


**AN: **This started out as a chapter to 'It's still there' but wrote itself into something completely different. It's totally random, yet I just had to publish it because it's Dan and Blair people. IT WILL HAPPEN IN SEASON THREE. Okay, probably not because everyone is so CB obsessed now but we can fill the void with fic. Enjoy, read and review. Narcolepsy is a condition when a person can't control when they fall asleep.

**Narcoleptics and Insomniacs  
**

For the first time in her life, Blair considers settling for someone other than _him._

She could say she tried with Nate, because they had kept their '_oh we're meant to be together, always have been_' cycle going on since summer before she found her way back to Chuck or rather, he found her for the first time, but she didn't really, because all during that time she wanted Bass. Bass and his dark hair. Bass and his cocky grin. Bass and his bowties. Instead she stuck with someone a lot unlike this before she faced the simple truth.

Then he ended it, without apparent reason. _I don't want to hold you back. _That was his motive, his pathetic reason. She remembers storming out of his penthouse all mascara tears as he called her back. She demanded Nate pick her up. He did.

"_At least this time you didn't hurt someone else." He offered. _

"_As if I'm not hurt, what do you think I'm feeling? To say I'm crushed. We had a plan." Blair whined, her voice dented._

"_I think you and Chuck have trampled over to many hearts to just not end up together anyway." He replied smugly, but Blair didn't miss the hurt lining his tone._

Now that he's gone - _both _of her boys, it doesn't feel like Nate or anyone else for that matter is going to show up at her door and swoop her away to a safe place. She's alone, truly alone. No Serena, no Chuck, no Nate. Serena calls every week to check in. Nate sends her pictures.

Chuck sends her nothing. There's only the memory of a heartbroken goodbye misted by tears.

Then before she considers taking a year off (just because she's Blair Waldorf) someone else comes along to break the rut she's in.

It was all very right, somehow. It just fell into place. She had never previously considered Dan a friend, he was just...there. First with her best friend, next with Vanessa. It just felt like the appropriate thing to ask him if he'd move in. So she did.

"Are you serious?" He asked, half amused, half stern. Blair raised her eyebrow.

"Why not? We can bad mouth Vanessa and Chuck on an hourly basis. Besides, I'm...alone." Blair sounded vulnerable and she hated it, because she could feel her cheeks heat up and his brown eyes where practically laughing at the ridiculous situation.

"Okay. Like you said, we can bad mouth our exes all you want."

And there he was, the next morning, fully moved in.

At first, to say it was awkward would be an understatement. They didn't know how to communicate because let's be serious – he was raised in a loft whilst she had everything she ever wanted given to her. But Dan soon discovered; take away the things Blair wanted and she was actually a different girl.

Something about Dan had shifted too, Blair discovered. Gone was the judgemental, awkward guy her blond best friend fell in love with and here was some suave, appropriately confident guy whose hair was a little longer.

He was definitely the most attractive guy Brooklyn had to offer, Blair decided.

She doesn't see any of him in Dan Humphrey, as she watches him write away in a black leather bound notebook. She see's the opposite of him. She is observing someone here who has direction and goals. He wanted to be a writer – a very good one.

Blair forgot that he did have one thing in common. They both missed someone very much.

And that's what drew them together in the first place.

She often falls asleep without warning these days. Dan asked her if she had developed narcolepsy – it was that strange. Someone with her presence now just faded away. She wasn't living anymore. She was going through the motions. Graduate. Go to France. Take it from there.

She was the lost one this time.

And so he took it upon himself to save her.

This was something he really hadn't experienced before. With Serena, his help was never wanted, accepted or even appreciated. Vanessa wasn't the kind of girl that ever needed to be saved as such, she wanted to save herself. In a way, she was stronger than Blair, Dan realised. Blair appeared absolutely indestructible, impeccably dressed for the next role consistently, sharp tongue always at the ready, her most lethal weapon and the way she could tear people apart with just a look up and down.

He struggled to believe that this was the girl Serena had as a best friend. She was incredibly vulnerable. And he found that beautiful .The girl was a poem waiting to be written, but then again to Dan every girl was like that. At least, the Dan who attended Yale.

And you thought our green eyed N was a whore.

He makes a vigorous effort to keep her awake now, and since he doesn't possess a black American express card sometimes the best he can do is give her a book to read. She'll read it, be surprised that Brooklyn-ites actually have taste in _something _and frequently spend her time talking about it.

"Blair, I just need to out right ask you something." He asked her one morning as he poured her and himself some coffee.

"Let's not make this a dramatic heart to heart Cabbage Patch, those are reserved for Serena and besides I have a test soon –

"Why do you sleep so much? I mean I come home and you're strewed across the couch and I have to wake you up for dinner and stuff...it's...weird, Blair." His tone was one of concern, although that didn't stop Blair from going into full on defensive mode.

"Some of us don't take half assed courses where we get half the week off, Humphrey. I get tired, okay? And is it any wonder when it feels like I have a test every fucking day."

And that was the end of that.

Except it wasn't.

He didn't ask her anymore, because her tone told him everything. It was Chuck. It was blatantly obvious that it was one of them, but again this was Blair Waldorf.

"I'm sorry I ate your head off this morning. Your course is not half assed, Humphrey. Although it kind of is." She smirked that evening when she found him just studying.

"Okay," he began tentatively, "it's okay you know. To miss him. It doesn't make you weak Blair."

"It does, Dan. I feel weaker without him. It's stupid and pathetic, I know but it just doesn't feel right. I don't feel right."

When he embraces her for the very first time, she begins to feel right.

--

It's second semester when the roles are reversed.

Dan and Vanessa just broke up over the Christmas holidays. Dan didn't even stay for New Year's in the city. He needed out. He needed away from seeing Vanessa, away from Serena who was soon to be his step sister, he was sure and he needed to just be alone.

Alone with her.

He drags himself into the house, throwing his keys on the floor. He can't believe he willingly let Vanessa end it. He doesn't know why, but the decision was mutual. She suggested it, not wanting to hold him back (looks like the meant to be couples are making a habit of unrestricting tactics) and he just nodded, kissed her forehead and here he is now.

With the wonderful gift of hindsight, he doesn't understand why he decided to be with Vanessa in the first place. There was a time when they had rediscovered each other, had fallen in love and the world was every shade of golden, but that time had passed and it was riddled with glares from Serena.

He feels her, she's here. And he's proven right as she greets him with a hug and sips her martini.

"Blair Waldorf, drinking alone." He claimed in triumph.

"The sight of your sister with Nate is enough to drive anyone to do so." She shot back playfully, with a hint of darkness.

"Jenny would have told me if there was something there." He protested weakly, because the truth was Little J was too busy being Blair's lesser replacement to call her big brother anymore.

"If I recall, she didn't tell you the last time." She remarked bitterly. Dan conceded, she was right. Things had certainly changed.

--

She hears him pacing his room the same night.

"I can't sleep." He smiled at the irony.

"My, my. Heartbreak is quite the worst thing ever, Daniel. I'll sleep with you." Her tone was far too eager than she wanted it to be.

"It's not that bad Blair." He laughed.

"Not like that, God no." Her cheeks flushed just like they flushed when she asked him to take residence here.

It was a bad, bad idea, she thought to herself then. And it was a bad, bad idea right now.

Because she could feel herself fall when she knew she shouldn't. And he _knew._

They let their eyes linger on one another before she broke his eye line, flopping on his bed.

"I'll tell you why I've been sleeping so much." She tempted, although the reason was anything but light hearted and casual. Blair was a very emotional person – when she felt something she was going to let you know about it and her feelings rarely went disguised. She had hid with Chuck all those years ago and now she was hiding with Dan.

Dan sat down on the bed, ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

"It's nothing medical. I don't even have an exact reason; I just want to get through this year as quickly as possible. I just want to escape it. Everything is so strange now, I mean you and I under the same roof?" She rambled, "Although it's been...more pleasant than I expected." She admitted, smiling sheepishly.

"You're not so bad yourself Waldorf." He conceded.

"So, what's your excuse? I mean you and her were made for each other." She commented.

"She didn't want to hold me back." He told her, clearly embarrassed whilst Blair laughed hollowly.

--

Its one hour and two minutes when Blair storms in, at first, with clean fury.

She slams her Chanel bag on the countertop and it startles him so much so that he flinches.

"Blair, what the hell?" He demanded.

She doesn't talk throughout dinner.

He's washing the dishes and she's drying when he realises what's killing her.

"So, Nate and Serena huh?"

"I know I shouldn't be surprised. I know that. It's just –

"I know. Me too."

And he _does know. _He knows exactly what she's feeling right now. It's strange, it's one of the few times he has actually related to Blair Waldorf. And it's one of the first times she has ever done so with him.

"So you do still go on Gossip Girl." Blair remarked smiling.

"Guilty as charged." He replied.

She took his hand and squeezed it. She tried to make it feel as platonic as possible, but nothing could be anymore.

It's much more comfortable and charged than what it should be.

--

"I have a proposition for you." Blair said in a preppy tone, that same night as they lounged in their living room.

"I wish I could say I was listening." He said distracted as he scribbled down what was supposed to be a rough draft for an essay.

She snapped the paper out of his hands.

"Have you ever thought about you and me?" She questioned, wanting, needing to know.

"I think I just saw hell freeze over."

"Oh," she laughed, almost boomingly, "so the thought is really that ridiculous?"

"Isn't it?" He asked. Rhetorical, as ever.

"Yes. Of course I was...just testing you there." She smirked.

He knows she wasn't, but he wasn't going to say that.

--

One morning, at three fifteen exactly, she calls her blond, perfect disaster of a best friend.

If she was up to her usual, demanding demeanour today she would have taken a plane or train to the City to look her straight in the navy blue eyes and ask Serena why.

But she's not, so instead she stutters out the forced question.

No greeting. No "_Hey S, just calling because I miss you." _None of that. "Why?" Is all she asks.

A long silence ensues, and she almost feels as if Serena is sitting opposite her, imploring forgiveness once again. They're sixteen and Nate has just slept with Serena all over again, albeit this time around it's much more predictable.

"Because he's made for me." She said quietly. "Blair don't criticise me for this. It's not like I'm the only one whose eyes have wandered to my best friend's ex-boyfriend."

Then she hangs up. Blair won't be surprised if their relationship never fully heals, and if this is the last time she and Serena will ever be completely honest with each other.

--

She has starting bringing nameless boys home now. Sometimes they'll look vaguely like Nate, other times they'll look vaguely like Chuck and other nights, it's anyone who gives her a compliment.

After she questioned him that night, he can't stop looking at her and smiling from the corner of his eye. Both of them aren't far from graduating from Yale and afterwards, no doubt they would go their own separate paths and perhaps they'd meet again and laugh sentimentally at the time they spent together and Blair would flash him the diamond on her finger, given to her by either Nate or Chuck.

He couldn't bear that thought.

They're eating dinner once again and she's rambling on about how Nate and Serena won't last.

--

He wanders into her room after hours on end of writing. He can't stop. You write the most when you feel the most, and naturally it's subjected Dan to torturing himself until he has the perfect phrase for anything.

"So you're watching me sleep now? Humphrey you really are a creep." She says softly.

He lies down on the bed beside her.

"I do. I thought about us. You know...what if and all that. It's kind of not to when we spend so much time together now."

She gets off her bed, glaring at him. "You did not just have the nerve to come in here and tell me all of this. Dan, its one week until we're both out of here –

"I just. I couldn't let you leave without knowing that I –

"That you what? I don't want to know, Dan." She sighs, exasperated. This was the reaction he was expecting.

"Blair, I want you. I don't know why or how I started to feel this way...but somewhere along the line I fell in love with you." He said soulfully, standing up and trying to justify how he felt. But he couldn't. This was _Blair Waldorf _and he wouldn't make any sense with her.

"What makes you think we'd work anyway? Or that I'd even want to find out how we'd turn out?" She threw the pillow at him and he couldn't help but laugh. But the seriousness settled over them again.

"Because I know that night you weren't just testing me." He smirked confidently. "You love me." He told her, pointing at her.

"Shut up, Humphrey." She scoffed. "You're ridiculous."  
"So are you."

"I guess we won't know how completely ridiculous it actually is unless we try." She reasoned, biting her bottom lip for a couple of seconds.

And so, without a word, they did. He kissed her for the first time, behind her window. And it felt as if she'd fall apart, but really, he had just been putting her back together again, he'd been doing that since the minute he took residence in the same house as her.

It was their home, now. Not just a house, a home.

When they parted, their foreheads lingered on each others.

"Well...this is...unconventional." Blair giggled. Dan laughed. "They're going to slaughter us when we go back, you know." She told him cautiously, peeling off his shirt.

"I know. But you're worth it, Blair Waldorf."

After that night, Blair never had another issue with sleep ever again. Except she couldn't do so without Dan's arm tucked around her waist.

--

**A/N: **Dan wants Blair, Blair wants Dan, I want feedback. (:


End file.
